The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-10
APASSI0N FOR MARRYING
AN ACCOMPLISHED SWINDLER
WHO HAD MANY WIVES.
He Was Once Known in Washington
and is Now in the Western Pennsyl-
vania Penitentiary for Swindling.
From the Wnshiuoton Post

and is Now in the Western Pennsyl
vania Penitentiary for Swindling.
From, the Washington Post
During the next seven years the Wester
Pennsylvania penitentiary will be tn
residence of one of the boldest an
most INSCRIPTIONS, one of tn
most active and versatile, swindler
known to the United States. The Pension
Office in this city has just learned that O,
Tuesday jeremiah Travis was convicted i,
the United States District Court at Scran
ton, Pa, and sentenced to seven wears I'm
prisonment for masquerading as specia
examiner of the Pension Bureau, AM
taking fees from pensioners on the pre-
tense that be- would have their nm
sions increased. Fully 500 pensioners have
paid hin fees ranging from 81 80 to $40.
His victims were mostly in Pennsylvania,
Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey. Some
times he passed as special examiner, some
times as Pension Office detective, fire.
quently as an ex-Commlssioner of Pensions,
and occasionally as the present Comm is
Sioner of Pensions, as best suited his pur-
pose. He sometimes appeared with an i'm
m ense pair OF epaulettes on his shoulders,
which he paraded before the country as his
insignia of Office
During the last few few years he has beer
making a speciality of the pension business.
but it never has been by any means his on
swindle. He has been by turns a doctf
and clergyman, and was actually in rs,
session of a pulpit when he was arrestejat
Wilkesbarre, Pa, last May Rev. A. Jaf-
ton was his name at that time, but irthe
course of his eventful career he has Jared
at various times as Robert Rayburn Allen
Ration, James Wilson, j. Thomas Rev.
John Tiff, Col. Bates, Rev. A. tafton,
Capt John A. Moore, Hon. j. A Bently,
ex-Commissioner of Pensions, ad about
two dozen other aliases
During the war he operated snong the
soldiers around Washington 2 a card
sharper and runner for faro bnks. Soon
after the war, he killed cans boat cap
tain at Buffalo, escaping with sentence of
only five years in the State pison.
MAN WITH MANY IVES.
After his release, in 1878 Ie turned up in
Syracuse and in BrockporS n. Y. AT the
time he was still young an handsome, bold
and captivating, and his hvorite prey was
woman-lovely, simple voman. He loved
and married them by The dozen, maids,
widows and all sorts, ard invariably disap-
peared with their none in a very short
time. At Brockport,. n. ". he mar
ried Miss Webb, and in a
week afterwards began a Irritation
whom he welded usde' the title of Maj
Sheldon Burleigh, U. S. A. He tired of her
in few months, went West, settled in
South Bend, Ind, under the name of H. G.
Pomeroy, and undertook to promote doubt
full pension claims There he married a
Miss Mason, and soor deserted her and next
appeared in Wabash, Ind, as j. w. jerks,
owner of a California gold mine. He
became acquainted with Mrs M. Stewart,
and, after a short colrtship, married her.
inducing her to sell her farm for 81, 800 in
cash, and leave her home to become the
mistress of palatial mansion on the Pacific
coast On the way tC California he bor-
rowed the money at Chicago ON the pretense
of taking better care If it and was never
again seen by the nevly-made wife.
Nothing more was heard of him until 1879,
when he turned up il Allegheny county,
Pennsylvania, under the name of John
Hoax, alias Col Bats, etc. Here he was
arrested on the charge of grand larceny. At
the December term, 1919, he was convicted
in the Court of Quarter Sessions, and SEN
fenced to the Allegnany penitentiary for
three years.
HIS CAREER 1T CUMBERLAND.
After serving his term he went to Cum
berland, Md, and began his career as bogus
Special Examiner 1f Pensions, giving his
name as A G. Webb. He also laid siege to
the heart of Mrs. j. P. Anderson, widow
with one son. She surrendered and became
Mrs. A. C. Webb. He Employed her boy
at a salary of 50 so day, but never paid
him. When the officials from the Pension
Bureau arrived at Cumberland he ske-
daddled, and was traced to Marietta, Pa,
where he was arrested.
On May 26, 1884, under the name of j. A.
Moore, alias j. W. jerks, he was convicted
in the United States Court at Philadelphia,
and sentenced to two years in the Eastern
penitentiary, for forgery in pension claim.
On the day of his release from that insti
tuition he was re-arreSted by the Sheriff of
Burlington county, New Jersey, and taken
to Mount Holly, where he was tried for OBJ
tanning money from pensioners under the
false pretense that he was a United States
detective and special examiner of the Pen
sion Bureau He was sentenced to one year
in the Burlington county jail from which he
was released just in time to be arrested last
May at Wilkesbarre, Pa. where, as the Rev.
A. Ration he was preaching to a congrega-
ton in soldier district, telling them how to
get to heaven.
Jeremiah Travis is now man of about so,
and Tioga county, Pennsylvania, has the